Lågskär is a small island just off the southern tip of Finland. In 1840, a wooden lighthouse was built here to help keep shipping in the northern Baltic Sea from running aground. In 1859, the wooden lighthouse was rebuilt into a masonry lighthouse which stood until it was bombed to oblivion by the […]

There’s an old joke about a US Navy ship trying to order a lighthouse to divert course. The purpose of the joke is to remind you that no matter how big you are there’s usually something bigger. That something bigger for those responsible for the safe travel of a ship is called “land”, and the lighthouse used to be how they know where land is.